Is Ozzie's "Bunting School" really needed?

Ozzie Guillen has been upset that at key times this year his World Champion White Sox have failed to lay down a sacrifice bunt when needed. In the last couple of weeks he has set up his "Bunting School," where selected players take extra bunting practice on a daily basis.

Is it true that his team has struggled, or are the White Sox really not that bad when it comes to getting down a good sacrifice bunt? Here are the 2006 top and bottom five teams in Major League Baseball in sacrifice bunt efficiency (through the games of Sunday, July 23).

It turns out Ozzie was right on the button with the White Sox ranking 27th out of 30 MLB teams in Sac Hit Efficiency. But it is not for lack of trying—the White Sox lead the AL in attempts, with more attempts than even two NL teams. For those of you out there wondering why the highest scoring team in the majors would even worry about the sacrifice bunt at all: that's a good question. The key part of the answer is that Ozzie is primarily sending his bottom-of-the-order guys to his school. No big boppers like Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, or Jermaine Dye were asked to register. Even for a high scoring team there are times when a sac bunt can be useful.